Entertainment

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic  The troubling thing about Jennifer Phillips’ performance on Sunday night’s X Factor is that irrespective of her profound talent, she can never hope to win the competition. I have a number of gripes with X Factor, most of which are axiomatic and probably not worth stating here. But asides from it being a blatant set-up and presided over by a talentless bunch of judges, and the fact that it’s a soap opera...

By Daniel Mackenzie (@EkcaLiena) The unstoppable streams of information that wrap tangles around our brains can get a little confusing to say the least. These restless beams carry huge amounts of images, opinions and sounds around the world, almost blinding in quantity and depth, and navigating to a place of interest can take up as much time as digesting the details found on arrival. One such area that both benefits and suffocates from this endlessness is music. That feeling of...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent Historians have revealed what London would have looked like today had Guy Fawkes’ gunpowder plot not been thwarted by the spies of the past. The images show how intelligence and espionage during the Tudor and Stuart times shaped Britain’s culture, religion and even architecture. Events such as the famous Gunpowder Plot, several plots to kill protestant Elizabeth I and Henry VIII’s new religion could all have led to a very different city were it not...

By Grant Bailey (@GrantDBailey) This morning I popped along to an Electric Jukebox press event in glittering Soho. In the chill morning air the streets felt particularly clear and spotless. A man selling the Big Issue waved a cheery hello as I gawped at a load of big trees. I think they were part of Ai Weiwei’s new exhibition. Admittedly, having failed to do my research (though there was an air of secrecy to the whole event) I went into the...

By Abeer Sharma  “Dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum de dum dum…” Oh yes, a new series of the BBC’s The Apprentice is back on our screens this week, launching with a double-bill. Expect haplessness, back-stabbing and stomach-churning desperation galore as 18 candidates battle for the opportunity to set up business with the indomitable Lord Sugar. The show’s return has already invited groans of derision. Reputable miserablist Paul Mason recently wrote a piece decrying the...

By Kane Power (@ElHeavio, @DeathInTexasUK)   Long-time visitors to this site will already be aware of how much we love Blacklisters. Their latest album Adult is still ringing in our ears with its black-humoured fuzzed-out racket, grown in the fertile soil of the Leeds hardcore scene. In his review of Adult TLE contributor Kane Power described Blacklisters as 'one of the best bands I’ve heard in years. Maybe the best of the lot.' So when Blacklisters frontman Billy Mason Wood said he would be available for...

It is said we all have our weak points.  And for BBC Broadcaster Jeremy Vine, that weak point appears to be the call of Lindt chocolates late at night. In an amusing video entitled ‘The Late Night Chocolate’ published on his official website http://jeremyvine.tv, the Radio 2 presenter and Strictly star admits ‘I’m trying to be more healthy and I’m moving around now with Strictly. I’m thinking about my health and I’m eating well all day. A friend said to...

Surf-noir Seattleites La Luz are bringing their sunny doo-wop vibes across the pond for a UK tour. The tour follows the release of their latest album Weirdo Shrine. Check out lead single 'Black Hole, Weirdo Shrine' and it's bizarre video below. If their swing-easy Tarantino surf is your bag you can catch La Luz at the dates below: 16th October - Brighton, UK - Bleach 17th October - Manchester, UK - The Eagle Inn 19th October - Glasgow, UK - The...

By Dr Katy Shaw @DrKatyShaw  The financial world has long been a source of fascination for writers, and this intensified in the wake of the credit crunch. In my new monograph Crunch lit I argue that following the financial crisis, literature was mobilised as an effective means of cultural resistance—a site for the struggle over the legitimacy of reality. Rewriting events, literary representations offer fictionalized micro-histories of a highly contested period that engage in a dialogic interaction with the lived fallout...